[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 26, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1036-H1037]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FISA: PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICANS PLAY POLITICS WITH NATIONAL SECURITY

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)

[[Page H1037]]

  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, Washington Republicans are throwing the 
facts out the window and are trying to scare the American public into 
believing that our Nation is less safe today than it was under the 
administration's supposed Protect America Act.
  The Bush administration was wrong when it said the intelligence 
community would go dark, outrageous, when the act expired earlier this 
month.
  Kenneth Wainstein, the Assistant Attorney General for National 
Security, said that even after the President's law expired, 
``intelligence officials would still be able to continue eavesdropping 
on already-approved targets for another year.'' And Kate Martin, the 
Director of the Center for National Security Studies, said our 
government could immediately listen in on any new individual plotting a 
terrorist attack without a court order under existing FISA emergency 
authority.
  Clearly, our intelligence community is not going dark. And I would 
hope that congressional Republicans would stop this scare tactic.

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